Network Magazine Spring 2017 | Page 30

BOXING FOR FITNESS TAKES THE FIGHT TO PARKINSON’S DISEASE A lifetime teaching the many benefits of exercise hadn’t prepared Steve Schiemer for the remarkable effect it would have on his own health condition. 30 | NETWORK SPRING 2017 hese days, most of us know someone who has Parkinson’s disease, or knows someone, who knows someone with the condition. If you’re reading this article and thinking you’ve never encountered anyone with Parkinson’s, just hold on a minute, because now you have! For the past eight years I’ve been living with Parkinson’s, a condition that, according to Parkinson’s NSW, affects close to 100,000 people in Australia. When you add in those affected by the condition (family, friends and carers) close to one million people in Australia alone are affected by this disease. A neurodegenerative disorder, Parkinson’s  is caused by the death or deterioration of brain cells that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate movement, coordination and emotional responses. This can lead to motor symptoms such as tremors, slowness of movement (or bradykinesia), muscle rigidity, postural instability, impaired balance or coordination, and problems with speech. There are also non-motor symptoms such as loss of smell, sleep disturbances and mood disorders. I was 39 when the symptoms first appeared, as a small tremor in my hands and occasionally in my legs. It took 12 months for my doctors to  come to the decision T that I had early onset Parkinson’s disease (the average age of onset is late 50’s, but three Australians a day under the age of 40 are also diagnosed). Amazingly, this diagnosis was  made after months of tests for almost every rare, obscure condition that involved the nervous system. When all of these tests came back negative, they gave me a two-week supply of pills which I was to  try,  and to provide feedback on.  After two  weeks I was feeling great! My tremors had calmed and I felt somewhat normal. Turns out that  the  pills  were Parkinson’s medication, so it only stood to reason that I had Parkinson’s disease. Yep, in this day and age, there is still no test for diagnosing Parkinson’s disease. It’s  diagnosed  by listing your symptoms, eliminating all other possible causes of those symptoms, and trying the medication to see if it helps! I’ll be honest with you, it’s not much fun. On top of the disease itself and its many symptoms, which  vary  widely  from person to person (they say that once you’ve met one person with Parkinson’s, you’ve met one person with Parkinson’s), the long term use of Parkinson’s medications  creates a complex range of side effects, many of which are just as bad as, and sometimes  worse than, the disease itself. In recent years, however, a treatment